1/ Each week, TODAY’s Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we look at the eldercare options available for a rapidly ageing population in Singapore, including a relatively new option of assisted living services.
“We will continue to monitor the demand for Community Care Apartments, and adjust the plans accordingly,” said the agency, adding that it is developing a pipeline of these apartments across different locations as it expects demand to “remain strong”.
And even then, the total number of seniors these facilities and the current ones can take in are a small fraction of the “missing middle” group.Mdm Lee Joo Lian, 82, in her room at the St Bernadette Lifestyle Village in Bukit Timah. The former junior college teacher is worried that while the cost is affordable for now, she does not know “how long finances can last”.
“Many people actually are very interested in this space, but they can't really come on board until the Government actually gives a clear guideline on how to go about starting assisted living facilities,” she said. “From our conversations with providers, we understand that they have to check with various government authorities on which government regulations should apply…and there is a lot of uncertainty and red tape because they are assessed on a case-by-case basis,” said Ms Chia.
“The high price of residential land has been a challenge for service providers to enter the assisted living facilities market and provide affordable assisted living options,” she said. Similarly, another resident, 84-year-old Tay Kay Siong, said that he had not been keen to move in as he felt that the cost was “a bit pricey”. He pays close to S$5,000 a month.
At present, the Government provides subsidies for various caregiving needs via MOH and the Agency for Integrated Care , including the Home Caregiving Grant — which goes up to S$400 a month to ease caregiving costs. Ms Mary Wee, senior manager of Care Corner Seniors Services, said that even though one of its day care centres in Toa Payoh has 20 vacancies, it has a waitlist of about 17 elderly clients.
For St Luke’s ElderCare, while it can accommodate 189 residents at its nursing home and up to 1,970 elders at its day care centres, the waiting time for its day care services is around a month, while admission to its nursing home is subject to the number of discharged cases. “I feel like the more you treat them they don’t have the ability, the more dependent they will be. So I think you need to give them that sort of independence,” said Mr Goh, who is working in the education sector in Melbourne, Australia.
d that the reliance on foreign domestic workers is not a sustainable model of caregiving as the countries they hail from are also ageing.Meanwhile, personalised part-time in-home care services, which on average cost upwards of S$20 an hour, are experiencing an increase in demand. A ministry spokesperson noted that since 2015, MOH has provided around 4,800 more day care places, 4,800 more home care places and 4,900 more nursing home beds to provide a total of 8,300 day care places, 11,700 home care places and 16,900 nursing home beds as of end 2021.
The 220 centres also include AAC , which provide AAC services and additional care services such as day care and community rehabilitation, it added.For example, it is strengthening senior volunteerism to encourage mutual support, and creating safe and dementia-friendly communities to support persons living with dementia, said the MOH spokesperson.
"MOH will continue to engage seniors, caregivers, and eldercare service providers as we review our plans to further anchor ageing in communities," the ministry spokesperson added.To manage the ageing population better and provide caregivers with more help, there has to be a fundamental shift from “reactive” to “preventive” measures in the country’s approach to tackling the issue, said experts and eldercare services providers.
Dr Tan of SUSS also suggested having co-living spaces with shared caregiving services for seniors as this would be the most feasible option for seniors in land-scarce Singapore. Nevertheless, she noted that unlike Singapore, these countries also have large grounds to provide retirement housing alongside nursing homes.
Such a community manager can be a point-of-contact for seniors and their caregivers in a block, and assist them with questions about senior services or in case of emergencies, said Dr Thang from NUS. On what more could be done at a grassroots level for caregivers, Ms Pereira shared that her Henderson-Dawson ward has partnered with non-profit organisation Caregivers Alliance to hold caregiver-to-caregiver training.
SUSS’ Dr Tan said that technology for smart living, such as voice-activated electrical devices, or motion sensors, can help to alert caregivers if a senior is immobilised.
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